1.
The West Indian
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The West Indian is a play by Richard Cumberland first staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1771. A comedy, it depicts Belcour, a West Indian plantation-owner, Belcour tries to overcome his fathers lingering disapproval of him and marry his sweetheart Louisa. This early example of the drama was favorably received, Boden translated it into German. The play was a success running for 28 performances in its run and was Cumberlands most popular comic work. One of the Drury Lane staff observed the success which has attended the performances of The West Indian has exceeded that of any comedy within the memory of the oldest man living. The play proved popular in North America and was staged in the West Indies and it was the first English language play known to have been staged in Jersey. A popular character was the Irishman Major OFlaherty who re-appeared in the 1785 play The Natural Son, the play was one of a number written by Cumberland that contained sympathetic depictions of colonists from the British Empire. A History of Literature in the Caribbean, English- and Dutch-speaking countries, nettleton, George H. & Case, Arthur E. British Dramatists from Dryden to Sheridan
2.
Western India
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Western India consists of the states of Goa, Gujarat, and Maharashtra along with the Union territory of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli of India. The region is highly industrialized, with an urban population. Roughly, Western India is bounded by the Thar Desert in the northwest, the Vindhya Range in the north, a major portion of Western India shares the Deccan Plateau with South India. Before the partition of India, the territories of Sindh. Parts of Gujarat were the site of Indus Valley Civilization, places have been uncovered in Gujarat at Lothal, Surkotada, and around Ghaggar river in Rajasthan. The Western Indian region was ruled by the Rashtrakuta Empire, the Maurya Kingdom, Gurjars, Rajputs, Satavahanas, Western Satraps, Indo Greeks, during the medieval age, the region came under Persian influence and also under Mughal rule. Later, the Maratha Empire which arose in western Maharashtra came to dominate a major portion of the Indian sub-continent, however its defeat by the British in the Anglo-Maratha wars left most of India under colonial rule. The region then experienced great upheavals during the struggle for Indian Independence, gandhis Dandi March took place in Gujarat. The region became part of independent India in 1947, and the present state boundaries were based on linguistic considerations in 1956. The region consists of the arid to semi-arid region of Saurashtra. The region South of that of Cambay and Southern Gujarat makes the northern arid region. The Western Ghats and Konkan lie along the coast of Maharashtra, the Deccan plains of the Vidarbha, Marathwada in central and eastern Maharashtra define the rest of the region. The vegetation varies from tropical rainforests along the Konkan coast to thorny bushes, the rivers in this region are the Narmada, Tapi, Godavari, Zuari, Mandovi, Krishna, Ghaggar, Chambal and many other smaller tributaries of other rivers. The climate varies between tropical wet, tropical wet and dry, and semi arid, the coastal regions experience little seasonal variations although the temperatures range between 20 °C to 38 °C. Mumbai and northern Konkan regions experience cooler winters with temperatures hovering around 12 °C. Interior Maharashtra experiences hot summers with temperatures averaging 40 °C. Pune, a city in the region experiences temperatures around 40-42 °C in summers. Gujarat also has a climate with hot summers and cool winters
3.
West Indies
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Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants of the West Indies. In 1492, Christopher Columbus became the first European to arrive at the islands, after the first of the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, Europeans began to use the term West Indies to distinguish the region from the East Indies of South Asia and Southeast Asia. In the late century, French, English and Dutch merchants and privateers began their operations in the Caribbean Sea, attacking Spanish and Portuguese shipping. These African slaves wrought a demographic revolution, replacing or joining with either the indigenous Caribs or the European settlers who were there as indentured servants. The Dutch, allied with the Caribs of the Orinoco would eventually carry the struggles deep into South America, first along the Orinoco and these interconnected commercial and diplomatic relations made up the Western Caribbean Zone which was in place in the early eighteenth century. In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States for US$25 million in gold, the Danish West Indies became an insular area of the US, called the United States Virgin Islands. Between 1958 and 1962, the United Kingdom re-organised all their West Indies island territories into the West Indies Federation and they hoped that the Federation would coalesce into a single, independent nation. West Indian is the term used by the U. S. government to refer to people of the West Indies. Tulane University professor Rosanne Adderly says he phrase West Indies distinguished the territories encountered by Columbus, … The term West Indies was eventually used by all European nations to describe their own acquired territories in the Americas. Despite the collapse of the Federation … the West Indies continues to field a joint cricket team for international competition, the West Indies cricket team includes participants from Guyana, which is geographically located in South America. More than Slaves and Sugar, Recent Historiography of the Trans-imperial Caribbean, a Concise History of the Caribbean. Martin, Tony, Caribbean History, From Pre-colonial Origins to the Present
4.
Antilles
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See also West Indies, Caribbean The Antilles are an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Lucayan Archipelago, though part of the West Indies, are not included among the Antillean islands. Geographically, the Antillean islands are considered a subregion of North America. In terms of geology, the Greater Antilles are made up of rock, as distinct from the Lesser Antilles. The Antilles were called multiple names before their current name became the norm, early Spanish visitors called them the Windward Islands. They were also called the Forward Islands by 18th-century British, thereafter, the term Antilles was commonly assigned to the formation, and Sea of the Antilles became a common alternative name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages. The Antilles were described in 1778 by Thomas Kitchin as once being called the Caribbee Isles in homage to the Carib people who were the islands first inhabitants. S
5.
Lucayan Archipelago
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The Lucayan Archipelago, also known as the Bahama Archipelago, is an island group comprising the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The archipelago is in the western North Atlantic Ocean, north of the Antilles, because the two nations of the Lucayan Archipelago do not border the Caribbean Sea, they are technically part of the West Indies but not the Caribbean. They are, however, often grouped with the Caribbean nations for convenience, the leaders of the Bahamas as well as Turks and Caicos Islands discussed the possibility of forming a federation in 2010. Bahamas Turks and Caicos Islands The Lucayan Archipelago was originally formed by the rifting of Pangaea, the Super-continent, the rifting of Pangaea was accompanied by volcanic activity due to the nature of the colliding North American and Caribbean plates. Evidence of the activity is found in the tilted fault blocks of Jurassic volcaniclastics which are commonly found in the Florida Straits area. In the southern region of the Bahamas, the basement rocks are oceanic crust, the Bahamas are referred to as carbonate islands, which is due to the formation of carbonate banks. This megabank formed in the Late Jurassic and is evidence of an absence of water at the time of formation due to the type of rock formed. Carbonates are more likely to form in shallower waters, thus the formation of two major banks in the Bahamas shows that there was an absence of deep water. There is also evidence of faulting which is shown in the tilting of the Bahama Banks and this tilting is due to the subduction of the North American plate under the Caribbean plate, in the vicinity of Cuba. The angle of tilting, which is left-lateral wrench faulting is in the direction of the subduction and this faulting occurred because as the North American plate subducted under the Caribbean plate, not all the rock layers moved as one continuous unit. List of islands of the Lucayan Archipelago Greater Antilles Lesser Antilles West Indies Keegan, the People Who Discovered Columbus, The Prehistory of the Bahamas. University Press of Florida ISBN 0-8130-1137-X Granberry, Julian, journal of the Bahamas Historical Society
6.
British West Indies
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The British West Indies, sometimes abbreviated to BWI, are now the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, Anguilla, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands and Montserrat. Before the independence of many new nations, they included a number of islands in the region. It was hoped that the Federation would become independent as a nation, but it had limited powers, many practical problems. Consequently, the West Indies Federation was dissolved in 1962, the remainder are British overseas territories. He set up a General Assembly of the Leeward Islands in St. Kitts, Stapletons Federation was active between 1674 and 1685, during his term as governor, and the General Assembly met regularly until 1711. By the 18th century, each island had kept its own Assembly, the islands continued to share one Governor and one Attorney-General. Although unpopular, Stapletons Federation was never really dissolved but simply replaced by other arrangements, between 1816 and 1833, the Leewards were divided into two groups, St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla and Antigua-Barbuda-Montserrat, each with its own Governor. In 1833 all the Leeward Islands were brought together, and Dominica was added, in 1869, Governor Benjamin Pine was assigned to organise a federation of Antigua-Barbuda, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. St. Kitts and Nevis opposed sharing their government funds with Antigua and Montserrat, Governor Pine told the Colonial Office that the scheme had failed due to local prejudice and self-interest. His only achievement was to give the Leewards a single Governor, all laws and ordinances, however, had to be approved by each island council. In 1871 the British government passed the Leeward Islands Act, by all the islands were under one Governor. The Federal Colony was composed of all islands organised under Governor Pines previous attempt, each island was called Presidency under its own Administrator or Commissioner. Like earlier groupings, this federation was unpopular but it continued until 1956, in 1958 the Federation of the West Indies was organised, of which the Leeward Islands became a part. In 1833 the Windward Islands became a union called the Windward Islands Colony. In 1838, Trinidad and St. Lucia were brought into the Windward Islands Colony, in 1840 Trinidad left the Colony. The Windward Islands Colony was unpopular, Barbados wished to retain its identity and ancient institutions. The individual islands resisted British attempts at closer union, Barbados in particular fought to retain its own Assembly and left the union in 1884. Power for the union was then transferred to Grenada as overseer of the bloc, from 1885 to 1958, the Windward Islands Colony included Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Vincent and St. Lucia during the entire period
7.
Caribbean people
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A Caribbean person or West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the Caribbean region or a person of Caribbean descent. The Caribbean region was populated by Amerindians from several different Carib. These groups were decimated by a combination of slavery and disease brought by European colonizers, descendants of the Arawak and Carib tribes exist today in the Caribbean and elsewhere but are usually of partial Native American ancestry. List of Caribbean music genres Afro-Caribbean Indo-Caribbean Asian Caribbean White Caribbean West Indian
8.
History of colonialism
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The historical phenomenon of colonisation is one that stretches around the globe and across time. The Spanish and Portuguese empires were the first global empires because they were the first to stretch across different continents, the phrase the empire on which the sun never sets was first used for the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. During the late 16th and 17th centuries, England, France, the end of the 18th and early 19th century saw the first era of decolonization, when most of the European colonies in the Americas gained their independence from their respective metropoles. In 1999, Portugal gave up the last of Europes colonies in Asia, Macau, to China, European colonization of both Eastern and Western Hemispheres has its roots in Portuguese exploration. There were financial and religious motives behind this exploration, by finding the source of the lucrative spice trade, the Portuguese could reap its profits for themselves. The first foothold outside of Europe was gained with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415, Portuguese successes led to Spanish financing of a mission by Christopher Columbus in 1492 to explore an alternative route to Asia, by sailing west. When Columbus eventually made landfall in the Caribbean Antilles he believed he had reached the coast of India, but had in fact discovered a new continent, the Americas. The two by now global empires, which had set out from opposing directions, had met on the other side of the world. During the 16th century the Portuguese continued to press both eastwards and westwards into the Oceans, the Roman Catholic Church played a large role in Spanish and Portuguese overseas activities. The Dominicans, Jesuits, and Franciscans, notably Francis Xavier in Asia, due to the massive depletion of indigenous labour, plantation owners had to look elsewhere for manpower for these labour-intensive crops. From its very outset, Western colonialism was operated as a joint public-private venture, in May 1498, the Portuguese set foot in Kozhikode in Kerala, making them the first Europeans to sail to India. Rivalry among reigning European powers saw the entry of the Dutch, English, French, Danish, the kingdoms of India were gradually taken over by the Europeans and indirectly controlled by puppet rulers. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I accorded a charter, forming the East India Company to trade with India, the English landed in India in Surat in 1612. By the 19th century, they had assumed direct and indirect control over most of India, during the five decades following 1770, Britain, France, Spain and Portugal lost many of their possessions in the Americas. A standing army was formed by the United Colonies, and independence was declared by the Second Continental Congress on 4 July 1776, the Patriots fought the British in the American Revolutionary War. The tensions caused by this would lead to the outbreak of fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the American War of Independence continued until 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed. Britain recognised the sovereignty of the United States over the bounded by the British possessions to the North, Florida to the South. The Haitian Revolution, a revolt led by Toussaint LOuverture in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, established Haïti as a free, black republic
9.
History of the West Indian cricket team
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The history of the West Indian cricket team begins in the 1880s when the first combined West Indian team was formed and toured Canada and the United States. In the 1890s, the first representative sides were selected to play visiting English sides, administered by the West Indies Cricket Board, and known colloquially as The Windies, the West Indies cricket team represents a sporting confederation of English-speaking Caribbean countries. The WICB joined the international ruling body, the Imperial Cricket Council, in 1926, and played their first official international match. By the late 1970s, the West Indies had a recognised as unofficial world champions. Their team from the 1970s and 1980s is now regarded as having been one of the best in test crickets history. During these glory years, the Windies were noted for their four-man fast bowling attack, in their early days in the 1930s, the side represented the British colonies of the West Indies Federation plus British Guyana. S. National teams also exist for the islands, which, as they are all separate countries, very much keep their local identities. These national teams take part in the West Indian first-class competition, the Stanford 20/20 and it is also common for other international teams to play the island teams for warm-up games before they take on the combined West Indies team. Lord Hawkes English team, including several English Test players, toured around the time, playing Trinidad, Barbados. Two winters later, in 1901–02, the Hampshire wicketkeeper Richard Bennetts XI went to the West Indies, in 1904–05, Lord Brackleys XI toured the Caribbean – winning both its games against West Indies. The tours to England continued in 1906 when Harold Austin led a West Indian side to England and his side played a number of county teams, and drew their game against an England XI. However, that England XI only included one contemporary Test player – wicketkeeper Dick Lilley – and he had not been on Englands most recent tour, 1925–26 saw another MCC tour of the West Indies. They did not, however, enjoy immediate success – the West Indies lost all three 3-day Tests in that 1928 tour by a way, failing to score 250 runs in any of their six innings in that series. They also failed to dismiss England for under 350 runs in a series dominated by England. The West Indies played 19 Tests in the 1930s in four series against England, the first four of these were played against an England team led by the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe that toured in 1929–30. However, as Harold Gilligan was leading another English team to New Zealand at exactly the same time, the series ended one-all, with the West Indies first ever Test victory being recorded on 26 February 1930. West Indians George Headley scored the most runs in the rubber, the Windies toured Australia in 1930–31. They lost the Test series 4–1, the fifth and final Test showed some promise – batting first, the West Indies spent the first three days earning a 250-run lead with five wickets down in their second innings
10.
Spanish colonization of the Americas
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The Colonial expansion under the crown of Castile was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Catholic faith through indigenous conversions and it is estimated that during the colonial period, a total of 18.6 million Spaniards settled in the Americas and a further 3.5 million immigrated during the post-colonial era. Spains loss of these last territories politically ended the Spanish rule in the Americas, the Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile, Queen of Castile and her husband King Ferdinand, King of Aragon, pursued a policy of joint rule of their kingdoms and created a single Spanish monarchy. Even though Castile and Aragon were ruled jointly by their respective monarchs, the Catholic Monarchs gave official approval for the plans of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus for a voyage to reach India by sailing West. The funding came from the queen of Castile, so the profits from Spanish expedition flowed to Castile, in the extension of Spanish sovereignty to its overseas territories, authority for expeditions of discovery, conquest, and settlement resided in the monarchy. Columbus made four voyages to the West Indiesas the monarchs granted Columbus the governorship of the new territories and he founded La Navidad on the island later named Hispaniola, in what is present day Haiti on his first voyage. After its destruction by the indigenous Taino people, the town of Isabella was begun in 1493, in 1496 his brother, Bartholomew, founded Santo Domingo. By 1500, despite a death rate, there were between 300 and 1000 Spanish settled in the area. The local Taíno people continued to resist, refusing to plant crops, the first mainland explorations were followed by a phase of inland expeditions and conquest. In 1500 the city of Nueva Cádiz was founded on the island of Cubagua, Venezuela, the Spanish founded San Sebastian de Uraba in 1509 but abandoned it within the year. There is indirect evidence that the first permanent Spanish mainland settlement established in the Americas was Santa María la Antigua del Darién, the Spanish conquest of Mexico is generally understood to be the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire which was the base for later conquests of other regions. Later conquests were protracted campaigns with less spectacular results than conquest of the Aztecs, but not until the Spanish conquest of Peru was the conquest of the Aztecs matched in scope by the victory over the Inca empire in 1532. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire was led by Hernán Cortés, the victory over the Aztecs was relatively quick, from 1519 to 1521, and aided by his Tlaxcala and other allies from indigenous city-states or altepetl. These polities allied against the Aztec empire, to which they paid tribute following conquest or threat of conquest, leaving the political hierarchy. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was a longer campaign, from 1551 to 1697, against the Maya peoples in the Yucatán Peninsula of present-day Mexico. When Hernán Cortés landed ashore at present day Veracruz and founded the Spanish city there on April 22,1519, Spain colonized and exerted control of Alta California through the Spanish missions in California until the Mexican secularization act of 1833. It was the first step in a campaign that took decades of fighting to subdue the mightiest empire in the Americas. In the following years Spain extended its rule over the Empire of the Inca civilization, in the following years the conquistadors and indigenous allies extended control over Greater Andes Region
